* Are Latvians nostalgic for the USSR, or were those days bleak days in your memory?
* Were there any prominent Latvians politicians, pop figures, or military leaders during the Soviet Era? It seems like all the politicians, scientists, musicians, and intellectuals from the USSR were all either Ukrainians or Russians.
* I’m reading on Wiki that about [25% of Latvians died during World War II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Latvia_during_World_War_II#Aftermath_of_the_Second_World_War). According to this article, Latvians helped out the Nazis and the Soviets, and about half of all the soldiers died fighting in what looks like a civil war to me. **Why didn’t the Latvians not collaborate with the Nazis or the NATO nations after the War?**
10 comments
Noone is nostalgic, from people I know.
Can’t have scientists and intellectuals if the brightest ones are sent to Siberia or killed.
Couldn’t do much after ww2 since we got uccupied.
So many questions, so many to answer….
Am I feeling nostalgic about those soviet times? A bit, yes. Living was simple, economic radically different. You know, many are nostalgic about those times in western world too, where they earned their pensions and wealth. This time is no more. And never will. And I know, under soviets I could never live like now.
Regarding prominent Latvian figures – there are many many, many, scores of them. That could be separate long writing. Dont look wikipedia, latvians are lazy to write about themselves.
Regarding Latvians and postwar… in a few words, many waited that western will come, british will come and help to liberate Latvia. But that help never arrive and thats the end of story, until nineties, when soviet union came to an end.
So to this time – now ukrainians fighting for their freedom, fighting for all of us, who will be next in line, if they fail. Nothing changes since 40ties. Same marodierism, deportations, filtration camps… Hope western europe is more ready now, as it could be last time…
Yeah sure, im so freaking nostalgic. No question about it, it’s not like we tore down a whole monument that glorified our occupants to spite russia or anything /s
An other spam bot, but simply USSR and 3rd Reich were mass murdering fascist states, only the fascists themselves “benefited” from them, all others were murdered off or were planned to be murdered off.
Of course there were some good things, but nothing could outweigh the fact that they used murder, torture, repression and rape to break us.
There was a resistance movement, Forest Brothers, Lithuanians and Estonians were with us.
Nothing nostalgic about USSR here, my parents were writers and well known here so I used to communicate with a lot of musicians, artists, painters, writers, etc. while I was a kid and they all had no chance on earning real money with they work, just enough to survive. We couldn’t openly celebrate many Latvian holidays, couldn’t openly place flowers at freedom monument (my dad was excluded from University for that), a lot of those “intellectual elite” were writing reports to KGB, so you had to be careful what jokes you say where, pretty similar to what happens now in Russia.
Shops had nothing much in them and whatever there was available was abysmal quality, I remember that had to chase photo films and chemicals all over the Riga to buy them, there were 3 shops in the center that sold them and I was lucky to find few films in one of those (I was into photography when I was a teen). When I wanted to buy a bicycle I had to wait for few months for that model to appear in the shop and had to check that shop every week, my mom finally got enough money for a car and she was put in the line, it took few years before we got the car, and bananas I only saw on new year when my dad came from Moscow.
In other words – you could get stuff if you knew someone who travels a lot and/or has a lot of money, otherwise you were very limited – no good toys, no good food, no equipment, nothing unless you had really good connections. Only around mid late 80s we started getting more stuff into the country, it was a closed “biome” with almost no perspective.
One thing that these Russian bots do achieve, is clear and sturdy opinions of this sub solidifying rather than dividing which is super nice.
I’m gonna answer the last bit short as possible. First came Russians. They said surrender Baltics or we will roll through so we thought let’s not fight a hard war which was the wrong choice because they killed many and then mobilized Latvians against their will. Then came Nazi’s and many were mobilized and people went voluntarily to fight against Russians since they caused so much death and destruction, we wanted to win them and then regain independance.
Germany lost and many went to forest to fight Soviets. There were estimated 60’000 partisans that were getting supplies from West but Soviets infiltrated it, pretended to be partisans. At end, everyone understood that West wont come to liberate since they didnt another war. And that’s how we lived. All intellectuals and soldiers sent to Siberia. Rest of population was subjugated.
If anyone says they hate Latvia and want USSR, that’s a dead giveaway they’re a Russian troll, not a Latvian.
“Were there any prominent Latvians politicians, pop figures, or military leaders during the Soviet Era? It seems like all the politicians, scientists, musicians, and intellectuals from the USSR were all either Ukrainians or Russians.”
Oh boy, this is where I shine. So, Eisenstein, Rothko, Vitas (yes, THAT vitas) and other cinematographers, musicians and artists were all born in Latvia, but it depends if you consider then Latvian or just other ethnics born in Latvia (and this is a discussion that goes on and on for ages). Other than that, ethnic Latvians politicians, artists, etc… were, after the Soviet Occupation in WW2, mostly endemic to Latvia.
*BUT* if you take Latvian politicans and generals before 1936, then you have yourself a big ass list of names. Latvians were – probably – the biggest muscle behind the bolsheviks in the civil war. I’m not kidding. According to historian Björn M. Felder in his book “Lettland im Zweiten Weltkrieg”, out of 70 NKVD commissars in 1917, 28 were Latvian. The guards of Lenin during the October revolution were [Latvian](https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/history/three-facts-about-latvian-riflemen-taking-petrograd-in-december-1917.a260521/) and they were the ones guarding the Soviets [gold reserves as well](https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/history/how-latvian-riflemen-lost-control-of-russias-gold-reserves.a287876/)
The first commander in chief of the Red Army was [Latvian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukums_V%C4%81cietis). So was [one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%93kabs_Peterss) of the founders of the NKVD. Deputy-in-chief of the NKVD in Ukraine [as well](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Latsis) and [one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Karlovich_Berzin) of the most feared comissars too – oh and the guy who helped set up the GULAGs? [Latvian too.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Berzin)
I’ll just copy and paste a few pharagraphs of Russia Beyond’s article [“How Latvians defended communism in Russia”](https://www.rbth.com/history/331104-how-latvians-defended-communism):
“The well-organized, trustworthy, and now “Red” Latvian Riflemen became the Bolsheviks’ metaphorical and literal fire-fighting crew. Deployed on the deadliest sections of the Civil War fronts, they defended Petrograd from Yudenich and Moscow from Denikin, and struck a fatal blow to Wrangel in Crimea (all three being White commanders). In 1919 they even managed to establish Soviet power in their Latvian homeland — but not for long.
The Red Latvian Riflemen took an active part in suppressing numerous uprisings throughout Bolshevik-controlled territory. Their brutality even gave rise to a popular saying: “Don’t look for an executioner, look for a Latvian!”
(…)
They were the ones entrusted with guarding key strategic sites in Moscow, as well as Lenin himself and other Bolshevik leaders. The Latvian Riflemen were, according to historian Vladimir Buldakov, nothing less than ‘the Praetorian Guard of the Kremlin.'”
With that said, Latvia managing to throw the Soviets out completely in 1920 meant that these Latvian figures inside the USSR were now unrealiable and undesirables. So the USSR did what they do best: they basically erased them from history and shot some 16 thousand Latvians in 1936 in what was called [“The Latvian Operation”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Operation_of_the_NKVD).
Personally, I take this calculated killing of the old Latvian reds as the reason why Latvia after the Soviet occupation in 1940 had such a diminished communist intelligentsia: Basically, anyone who was good had been killed, anyone who had soviet affiliations realized they would not be appreciated, and the best strategy if you were communist and Latvian was to be quiet and fly under the radar.
Of course, in 1958-1959 they tried to fly a little to close to the sun, by refusing the “voluntary” acceptance of the Russian language as a second official language, and some [2 thousand Latvian communist party members were purged.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic#National_communists,_1953%E2%80%931959)
So, in sum, your question about Latvian military leaders and politicians in the USSR? Yeah, there used to be – then the Russians decided to purge them off.